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Authors: Allison Brennan
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ago.
Jack had no intention of spending any more time in the same room as his father. But two years ago, he’d asked his mother to forgive him. This woman had given him life, raised him, never once turned her back on him. When he returned home, she welcomed him as if he were the prodigal son. Jack had been the one to let his father get between him and the mother who bore him. She had no part in what had happened two decades ago.
“What time?” Jack asked.
She beamed, hugged him again. “Six.” She turned to Patrick with a bright smile. “That’s the good news I have. The doctor said you can come home for the evening. By Friday, you will be released for good.”
“You mean they’re letting me leave?” he grinned. “For real food?”
“I’m making all your favorites. I have Nick helping because his wife is no good in the kitchen.” She shook her head. “How could I raise a daughter who can’t cook?”
Letting his mother babble to Patrick, Jack stared over her head at his father.
Pat stared back for five seconds, then turned and left the room.
Jack followed.
Pat stood in the middle of the brightly lit hall. He waited for Jack to approach.
“I’m not turning my back on my family again.”
“You made that choice twenty years ago, Jack.”
Jack suppressed his rising anger. “ You made the choice. You gave me an ultimatum I couldn’t agree to. If I had had the balls back then I would have ignored you and never cut off contact with Mom.”
“You owe me an apology. I saved your career.”
“I didn’t ask you to.”
“Dammit, Jack, you’re stubborn and shortsighted. You would have been court-martialed!”
“I was willing to take that chance.” He would have risked not only his career but his life twenty years ago in Panama to save the family who had taken a stand against Noriega. He found them hiding, with hardly any food or water, and he’d extracted them, brought them to an American base. Against orders, but should he have let them be slaughtered? The area hadn’t been secure, they were the only civilians in the small outlying village, trapped because one of the children was handicapped and couldn’t make the journey to safety fast enough.
Pat fisted his hands. “I couldn’t watch you lose everything. Jeopardize the entire mission, embarrass the army, embarrass me—” He stopped.
“This was about embarrassing you? People were killed because you pulled me out. The mission was never in jeopardy. I was risking only my life and my career.”
“You can’t save the world, Jack.”
“But I could have saved them!” He slammed his fist against the wall. Pictured the Ortega family when he found them a week later, executed. Father, mother, children, grandmother. A family of nine murdered in cold blood because their father had taken a stand against the criminal Noriega and his thuggish cronies.
“You don’t know that. They were safe where they were. How do you know that your impulsive decision to move them didn’t lead to their enemies finding them when I sent them back home?”
Turning his back on his father, Jack stepped into the staircase. He ran up the thirteen floors and stood at the top, unable to exit to the roof. He pounded his fists on the locked door, then put his hands on his knees and breathed deeply.
He didn’t know if he was to blame for the Ortega family being slaughtered. Jack had lived with that guilt for twenty years.
CHAPTER
FIVE
By the end of Tuesday, Megan had exhausted all avenues she could think of to regain control of the evidence and Price’s body. She finally decided to break ranks and call an old friend. If J. T. Caruso, one of the principals in the local office of Rogan-Caruso Protective Services, couldn’t find the answers she needed, no one could.
She was one of the select few who had J.T.’s private cell phone number—courtesy of her brother who had been in the navy SEALs with J.T.—though she rarely used it.
“Caruso,” the deep voice
Jack had no intention of spending any more time in the same room as his father. But two years ago, he’d asked his mother to forgive him. This woman had given him life, raised him, never once turned her back on him. When he returned home, she welcomed him as if he were the prodigal son. Jack had been the one to let his father get between him and the mother who bore him. She had no part in what had happened two decades ago.
“What time?” Jack asked.
She beamed, hugged him again. “Six.” She turned to Patrick with a bright smile. “That’s the good news I have. The doctor said you can come home for the evening. By Friday, you will be released for good.”
“You mean they’re letting me leave?” he grinned. “For real food?”
“I’m making all your favorites. I have Nick helping because his wife is no good in the kitchen.” She shook her head. “How could I raise a daughter who can’t cook?”
Letting his mother babble to Patrick, Jack stared over her head at his father.
Pat stared back for five seconds, then turned and left the room.
Jack followed.
Pat stood in the middle of the brightly lit hall. He waited for Jack to approach.
“I’m not turning my back on my family again.”
“You made that choice twenty years ago, Jack.”
Jack suppressed his rising anger. “ You made the choice. You gave me an ultimatum I couldn’t agree to. If I had had the balls back then I would have ignored you and never cut off contact with Mom.”
“You owe me an apology. I saved your career.”
“I didn’t ask you to.”
“Dammit, Jack, you’re stubborn and shortsighted. You would have been court-martialed!”
“I was willing to take that chance.” He would have risked not only his career but his life twenty years ago in Panama to save the family who had taken a stand against Noriega. He found them hiding, with hardly any food or water, and he’d extracted them, brought them to an American base. Against orders, but should he have let them be slaughtered? The area hadn’t been secure, they were the only civilians in the small outlying village, trapped because one of the children was handicapped and couldn’t make the journey to safety fast enough.
Pat fisted his hands. “I couldn’t watch you lose everything. Jeopardize the entire mission, embarrass the army, embarrass me—” He stopped.
“This was about embarrassing you? People were killed because you pulled me out. The mission was never in jeopardy. I was risking only my life and my career.”
“You can’t save the world, Jack.”
“But I could have saved them!” He slammed his fist against the wall. Pictured the Ortega family when he found them a week later, executed. Father, mother, children, grandmother. A family of nine murdered in cold blood because their father had taken a stand against the criminal Noriega and his thuggish cronies.
“You don’t know that. They were safe where they were. How do you know that your impulsive decision to move them didn’t lead to their enemies finding them when I sent them back home?”
Turning his back on his father, Jack stepped into the staircase. He ran up the thirteen floors and stood at the top, unable to exit to the roof. He pounded his fists on the locked door, then put his hands on his knees and breathed deeply.
He didn’t know if he was to blame for the Ortega family being slaughtered. Jack had lived with that guilt for twenty years.
CHAPTER
FIVE
By the end of Tuesday, Megan had exhausted all avenues she could think of to regain control of the evidence and Price’s body. She finally decided to break ranks and call an old friend. If J. T. Caruso, one of the principals in the local office of Rogan-Caruso Protective Services, couldn’t find the answers she needed, no one could.
She was one of the select few who had J.T.’s private cell phone number—courtesy of her brother who had been in the navy SEALs with J.T.—though she rarely used it.
“Caruso,” the deep voice
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